Saudi girl crowned “Miss Moral Beauty”

While “Moral” is not an absolutist criteria, is this type of contest preferable to our Western—and shallow—physical beauty contest?

Divorced from religious extremism (in itself a flexible scale), is there a benefit to this approach?

Saudi girl crowned Miss Moral Beauty
(AFP) – Jul 24, 2009

RIYADH — Saudi beauty queen Aya Ali al-Mulla trounced 274 rivals to win a crown, jewellery, cash and a trip to Malaysia, and all without showing her face, Saudi media reported on Friday.

With her face and body completely covered by the black head-to-toe abaya mandatory in the conservative Muslim kingdom, 18-year-old Mullah was named “Queen of Beautiful Morals” late on Thursday, newspapers said.

There was none of the swimsuit and evening gown competitions and heavy media coverage of beauty pageants elsewhere when the contest was decided in the eastern city of Safwa.

Instead, the winner and the two runner-up princesses had to undergo a three-month test of their dutifulness to their parents and family, and their service to society.

This included a battery of personal, cultural, social and psychological tests, Al-Watan reported.

It was unclear exactly what Mullah did to pip her rivals in the huge field, but Al-Watan reported that the high school graduate had good grades and hopes to go into medicine.

She raked in a 5,000-riyal (1,333-dollar) prize, a pearl necklace, diamond watch, diamond necklace, and a free ticket to Malaysia with her win.

The 20-year-old first runner-up, one of triplets, had already won an education ministry-sponsored “I love you, my country” competition.

The second runner-up, a high school student aged 15, was cited for taking care of her home and family during the week because her mother works far from home and can only return on weekends.

Beauty contests focused on physical beauty are non-existent in segregated Saudi Arabia, where women can not mix with unrelated men, and must appear in public completely covered—even in photographs.

But she couldn’t outshine perky Miss Nebraska, who blew up 3 abortion clinics.

No, the idea is to rate people for their character rather than their beauty—that was my point. I’m not suggesting the criteria of an Islamic beauty contest shines in character either—I’m suggesting that it would be a person’s decency, altruism, intelligence, education, etc. that would be the criteria, not how big their knockers are or how white their chiclet teeth are.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is: why are only women allowed in this contest? Surely Saudi’s don’t think that women are more Moral? The obvious answer is that it’s still a forum for men to express their desire for women when the other criteria have been taken away. “If that sweet girl was mine, I’d give her the reward she deserves! So lovely, so sweet, so pure… come to me my little darling.”

Whether you agree with it or not, at least the concept of the western beauty pageant judges and celebrates reality- physical beauty and health- that which can be observed and measured to a set of somewhat objective standards. It’s when you try to judge ‘spiritual’ aspects that you cross into the ‘crazy zone.’ Sure, we should also celebrate intellect and scientific knowledge but, to me, I find more sane, healthy reality-based sanity in pornography than all the ‘other worldly’ and destructive enlightenment revealed in any of the so-called sacred books

Why does it have to be one of the extremes? We either have perfectly proportioned bimbos who fumble at the simplest (rehearsed) questions or at best just giving the usual rhetoric, or we have (I’m assuming the best, here) someone who wants to be a good role model and a real impact on society, but is covered head to toe in a bodybag so her male friends aren’t tempted.

But she couldn’t outshine perky Miss Nebraska, who blew up 3 abortion clinics.

No, the idea is to rate people for their character rather than their beauty—that was my point. I’m not suggesting the criteria of an Islamic beauty contest shines in character either—I’m suggesting that it would be a person’s decency, altruism, intelligence, education, etc. that would be the criteria, not how big their knockers are or how white their chiclet teeth are.

I looked up images of Miss moral beauty. One website showed contestants for a beauty pagent wearing burqa, with just the eyes showing, sometimes with the eyes under a mesh. So I suppose it must be based on what the contestant says which is pretty unique. Or perhaps how beautiful the eyes are, or perhaps the fingers and wrist. I suppose one could rate them on choice of colors for the burqa as some can be very colorful and textured.

I must admit that the solid blue or solid black burqa brings up feelings of distrust for me. Like they are hiding their identity. Reminds me too much of a ninja wearing all black with a face mask. Or a burglar wearing all black with face mask. France has banned all forms of face covering in public, including the burqa for security risks, social hinderance. Although people arguing against the ban say it encroaches on individual freeoms.